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Many a time have I winced at the poor grasp of the English language shown by whoever sets the Radio Times crosswords.

The clues for the puzzle published in the issue of 27 June to 3 July 2009 include four unsatisfactory ones that seem to indicate faults of ignorance, imprecise thinking, and illiteracy.

The least worrying of the four is the clue “Shoot skinhead puritan”, the solution to which is “Sprig”. The fault is that ‘puritan’ only means ‘prig’ to a person ignorant of the nature of puritanism, which is a belief that pure living is right, or is the will of God. Of course a self-styled puritan may be a prig: on the other hand he or she may be a humble saint. ‘Puritanism’ does not mean ‘priggishness’ any more than ‘disagreement’ means ‘bloody-mindedness'.

Next, “TV presenter about to set up home with Joyce”. Solution: “Clive James”. Now the answering of the clue as it stands requires that 'to set up home' means 'to live'. It doesn’t. If the clue had read “TV presenter about to dwell with Joyce”, then the solution “Clive James” would be admissable. It is the 'setting up' that is faulty.

Worse, though, is the use of the word ‘orally’ rather than ‘aurally’ in the clue “Arab land to orally rattle monk” The solution (“sheikhdom”) lies in the homophony of the words ‘sheikh’ and ‘shake’. The potential ambiguity lies in the sound of the words: it is the hearer who can’t be sure ('aurally') whether the sound implies ‘rattle’ (itself an inaccurate synonym for ‘shake’ anyway) or an ‘Arab leader’: a speaker ('orally') would know perfectly well what he meant.

Equally unsatisfactory to a pedant is the clue “Person winding up clear list on return”. The intended solution is “liquidator”. It seems that the setter is confusing the terms ‘liquid’ (meaning ‘fluid’ or 'fluent') and ‘limpid’ (meaning ‘clear’). Mind you, this confusion is a very long-standing one: hallowed by time, might be the defence.

The cryptic crossword is a sort of contest intended for those who know words pretty well. Trying to solve one set by someone who doesn't is like playing chess with a person who doesn’t quite understand the moves.

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